Hear ye! Hear ye! Send in your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out if your privacy has been illegally pried into by the government.
HINT: It has. You don’t need to wait around for years to get an official statement.
(There is actually a kickstarter for a project to help streamline FOIA requests for journalists. I’m sure it can be used by every citizen as well. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cir/foia-machine)
If you care about this, voice your opinion. They’re listening. And they need to know some things.
I personally don’t have any illusions to privacy in our digital age. And I’m sure there would be less outrage if we were actually told truthfully what was going on and the reasons why. We don’t really get mad at a lack of privacy, we get made when we feel like other’s have made the decision on our behave of what we consider privacy. Facebook has felt the wrath many a time for choosing how the illusion of privacy should be presented.
We don’t nor have we ever really lived in a private world. (“Private World,” coming to a XXX theater near you!) BUT I’m completely against the lies and general lack of adherence to laws put into place to supposedly protect us. Especially when those violators are doing much more than they officially state. It feels utterly wrong as a society to allow those in power to have their way with our information, trade it for more power and influence and all the while tell us “move along, nothing to see here.” They treat us like misbehaving kids before we even have a chance to behave.
If the whole purpose of a government is to protect us and do what is right, what’s the point when they lose their focus and start treating it’s citizens as suspect. There’s a weird psychology to it that can easily turn into a self fulfilling prophecy. Don’t kids hate it when parents wrongfully suspect them of doing wrong? Then what do the kids think, “well, if they already think I’m messing up, might as well be blamed correctly. What do I have to lose?” (“This crack ain’t gonna smoke itself.”) Then they start doing the things the parents initially and wrongfully blamed them for.
What it comes down to is a lack of trust. That is really what is causing the outrage to this whole episode in our nation, society and world. Simon Sinek has several great talks on the crucial importance of trust to build healthy relationships. I really hope the governments of the world listen in to these important incites. And you as well. Gotta start with yourself. Be a shining example.
Without trust you start to not care what happens. Or rather you start to despise the other person and go out of your way to spite them. And that is a recipe for disaster. Sadly, we are learning time and time again, we can’t trust the government because they don’t think we can be trusted. I hate to see when the citizens wrongfully start to prove them right.
Simon Sinek: Love Your Work (Optimist)
TEDxSanDiego – Simon Sinek – Restoring the Human in Humanity
TEDxMaastricht – Simon Sinek – “First why and then trust”
(Title image saved from the FOIA Kickstarter Campaign Project Update #5 email. Hope that’s cool fellas. Figured I’d use your image to help promote your work.)
